


Deleted Scenes from Marauders Four (2019)

by NotQuiteHydePark



Category: New Mutants (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Breaking and Entering, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Fashion & Couture, Fluff and Humor, Multi, Music, Parody, Politics, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21873757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotQuiteHydePark/pseuds/NotQuiteHydePark
Summary: “Are we parachuting into a nest of invidious stereotypes about weak, un-masculine, money-obsessed Asian men who join cults and the dragon ladies who control them?”“Probably,” Kate says.
Relationships: Callisto/Ororo Munroe, Kitty Pryde/Illyana Rasputin, Kitty Pryde/Rachel Summers, Lucas Bishop & Kitty Pryde, Ororo Munroe & Kitty Pryde, Ororo Munroe/Yukio
Comments: 7
Kudos: 7





	Deleted Scenes from Marauders Four (2019)

Kate and Lucas Bishop look out from the rail on the foredeck of the Marauders’ pirate ship.

"Have we given our pirate ship a name yet?" Bishop asks.  
  
"Not one that people remember," Kate answers.  


Pyro, coming up from behind them in the next panel, offers suggestions. "Chromosome Home? Mutant Mateship? The Larrikin? The Waltzing Krakoa?"

"You’re not even really Australian," Kate reminds him. "Cut it out."  
  
Lockheed breathes a faint tongue of flame.  
  
"I’ve got it, mates," Pyro says. "The Mutant Journey."

*

Ororo shows up overhead. The panel views her from below, as Kate would see her. She is, as always, majestic.

Bishop looks right at Kate. "Remind me why we’re going to Brazil, and why it’s Brazil, of all the Latin American countries we could visit, where the authorities are huge anti-mutant jerks."  
  
"It’s a rare instance of geopolitical realism," Kate says, punching her phased hand through a ship rail. "The actual national-level authorities in actual Brazil, at the moment, are huge bigoted jerks. A far-right sleazeball won an election and he wants to burn down the Amazon and persecute indigenous people too."  
  
"What timeline is this again?" Bishop asks.  
  
"Don’t tell me," Kate says. "I know."

*

A group of mutant pre-teens hides behind a rock formation on a generic beach cover. They could be in New Zealand or Mexico or Thailand or South Carolina but they are in Brazil.

“They said to watch for their signal,” says the one with blue hair. “I’m guessing that’s it?”

Closeup of Pyro on the foredeck, by himself. “I figured out what to call our ship!” he exclaims. “Any Way You Want It!”

Lockheed flies up beside him, two human fingers still in his mouth.

“That’s his favorite treat,” Kate tells Bishop, and shrugs. “He won’t leave them alone, and when we hide them, he finds them. Lockheed, honey, can you drop your special treat long enough to breathe fire for our friend from Maryland here? We gotta rescue some kids.”

“G’day mate!” says Pyro, slightly annoyed. Lockheed drops the fingers and starts breathing fire again. Pyro starts singing. His voice is really high: he can hit those notes.

“Is there some kind of connection here between Pyro the codename and Steve Perry from Journey?” Bobby says. “Like Pyro-Perry? Perry-o?”

No one acknowledges him. “Time to part and go our separate ways, I guess,” he shrugs from his ice-slide.

*

Ororo steps onto the beach to confront a jerk in military fatigues. She’s majestic as always.

Kitty watches Ororo from the ship. Thought balloon: “Whatever happened to Ororo’s skin earlier, I’m glad she’s better now. She looks amazing. Sometimes I have to remind myself the only reason I’m the captain is that Storm didn’t want to be.”

“I don’t even know who you are,” Ororo tells the jerk, lightning pouring from her fingertips.

“This is sovereign land! Not another step!” the jerk replies, straining every muscle in his square-jawed skull as he tries and fails to match Ororo’s presence.

“You work for the Bolsonaro administration and you DARE to go on about sovereignty and land rights? I have never seen a more thorough and contemptible hypocrite. And I was once written by Peter David,” Ororo says. “There will be no fight.”

*

Kate Pryde and Lucas Bishop look out from Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper in Taipei and one of the tallest in the world. It’s a famous building, majestic and clearly East Asian in the sets of lines it makes against the sky. 

Zoom in on the two figures, and establish both Kate’s straight dark hair, which she’s growing out, and Bishop’s locs. If this comic does nothing else this issue we’re going to take the chance to get black hair right.

They jump. Bishop doesn’t like falling. “Are we parachuting into a nest of invidious stereotypes about weak, un-masculine, money-obsessed Asian men who join cults and the dragon ladies who control them?”

“Probably,” Kate says. “You said we can be in and out in 90 seconds?”

“Yes,” Bishop says. “I’ve done my homework on this place.”

“At least somebody did their homework,” Kate sighs, and adjusts both their bodies for landing.

*

Inside the penthouse, Kate looks directly at the reader. “I wouldn’t mind hanging out for a short chat-slash-slap-upside-the-head for the ivory,” she says, shrugging. She’s clearly having fun, in a way that she never did as a teacher. She could lead this pirates-and-break-ins life for years. She’s seen Leverage.

“Eighty seconds,” Bishop tells Kate, looking wary as he lifts his enormous gun. “This penthouse has a void that I need to get into. Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to shield Marvel editorial from every kind of information about anti-Asian and anti-Asian American stereotypes, and I’m really tired of taking part in stories that propagate them, even though I do love breaking and entering.”

“Good point,” Kate says. “Let’s locate the stereotypes and get out of here fast.”

*

Kate and Bishop break into the white room where Lim’s held. He is actually reading a little red book, which he appears to treat as gospel.

The two mutants look at each other. Each says “uh.”

“I warned you about the stereotypes,” Kate says.

“Fifty seconds,” Bishop answers.

*

Jumbo Carnation’s workshop on Krakoa. There’s a tall, smiling, dapper mutant who looks like Tim Gunn but with two heads right behind him. “Make it work!” both of the heads tell Jumbo. In the distance the Cuckoos are looking at illustrations, taking a few pages down from a wall.

Jumbo is talking to Forge. “Two sergers, three cutting tables, and can we please talk to Kate and Emma about closing that deal where we provide high-end pharma-cosmetic in exchange for fabric from Mood? I can’t design without materials, and there’s not exactly a great fabric store on the island.”

Forge signs. “If you want to change somebody’s mood we can go get Empath,” he says. “But that’s not usually a good idea.”

“Mood, the fabric store,” Jumbo sighs. “Do you even dress yourself?”

“No,” Forge says, looking around for an exit.

*

Storm and Kate sit together in civilian clothes, Kate in a sundress, their feet in the water. They’re on the Marauders yacht.

“How did it go?” Storm asks, sun through clouds behind her, throwing her white hair and dark skin into relief.

“We couldn’t do much about the stereotypes,” Kate says, “but we did find the kidnap victim. Also I ended up disrupting a big anti-mutant rally by coming on stage, undercutting a powerful speaker, and denouncing both a religious cult and anti-mutant bigotry.”

“That sounds familiar,” Ororo nods.

“Don’t worry,” Kate says. “I didn’t use slurs this time.”

Ororo smiles. Kate’s an adult now.

“I miss my girlfriends,” Kate says, tossing a pebble idly into the South China Sea.

“I miss my girlfriends too,” Ororo responds, still smiling. “One of mine has tentacles.”

Kate smiles too. “One of mine has a tail.”

_Lucas—Do NOT draw the panels for that last exchange. The higher-ups would make us take it out for sure. We’ll work out a replacement. Sorry to do this—Jordan._

_Jordan—Are those creepy tween Hellfire wannabes around Kade Kilgore from Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men still creepy tweens? It’s been years since the Aaron run, right? If I’m gonna use them for the replacement page I have to tell Lucas how to draw them. –Gerry_

_Gerry—Sliding time is on our side. Go for whatever makes you most uncomfortable. Good job with Kate on this one, though. I’m really getting her sense of independence. –Jordan and J-Hix_

_J & J—On it! I miss Kate’s girlfriends too though. Gerry_

_G—See what Jordan said about the higher-ups, above. Also they’re in space.—Hix_

_JHix—And whose fault is that??? --G_

*

PRIVATE COMMUNICATION

Dear Emma: Working with Bishop is fun even though he’s still grumpy, I still remember when he tried to kill a kid for messed-up timeline reasons, and he’s still super-resistant to becoming our Red Bishop. I think the idea that Bishop would be the Red Bishop and that he would work with me AND together we sound like we can combine to form Hawkeye AND there are already two Hawkeyes is probably confusing if you’re from his future, although in fairness he’s the only one around here who can remember what XSE stands for—everybody else still scratches our heads.

Anyway we’re having fun on the high seas. I ‘m doing more public speaking. I don't understand why I keep doing the public speaking, but hey, I seem to be OK at it. At least I say what I think.

I can’t wait for the new outfits from Jumbo Carnation. Just keep the bondage gear for yourself, K? Not my thing. And as you know, I’ve tried.

Also, thank you for calling me Kate. The X-Men can do a lot of astonishing things but I don’t think they can do that. You were right. –Kate

Dear Red Queen Kate Pryde—Of course I was right. I usually am—King Emma

PS Has anyone seen Bobby?


End file.
